Most
of the major motion picture studios have fled Hollywood for spots like
Burbank or Culver City. There is only one big name movie studio
still actually located in Hollywood: the huge Paramount Studios.
It also happens to be the longest continually operating studio in Hollywood.
And Paramount is also one of the few studios that admit the public on regular
guided tours of the
studio's back lot.

Paramount
Studios began in 1913 in a rented horse barn near Sunset & Vine, and
moved to its current location on Gower Street in 1926, into an existing
studio which had been built in 1917. (That historic barn, where DeMille
shot "The Squaw Man," is now open to the public as theHollywood Studio Museum.)

Over the years, its sprawling
back lot grew and absorbed what used to be the adjacent RKO Studios.

The
list of landmark motion pictures filmed by Paramount Pictures itself reads
like a virtual history of Hollywood, beginning with classic silent films
such as "The Sheik" with Rudolph Valentino
(1921), and including the first movie to ever win an Academy Award for
Best Picture, 1927's "Wings."

Paramount
was the home of such early superstars asMae
West, W.C. Fields,
and Mary Pickford,
as well as directors Cecil B. Demille
and D.W. Griffith.

The studio made "Going
My Way" (1944) with Bing Crosby
and "Sunset Blvd."
(1950) with Gloria Swanson
and William Holden.
Alfred Hitchcock
shot some of his best films for Paramount: "Psycho" (1960),
"Rear Window" (1954), & "Vertigo"
(1958); and the Marx Brothers
gave the studio some
of their best comedies, including "Coconuts" (1929) &
"Duck Soup" (1933).

RKO
Studios was once located at the southwest corner of the Paramount lot
(you can still see their giant globe there today), but it was eventually
absorbed into the Paramount lot.

RKO was a major studio in its
own right; it once owned the Culver Studios
as well. Begun by Joseph P. Kennedy, the studio produced countless hits,
including the classic "It's a Wonderful Life,"
nine Fred Astaire/
Ginger Rogers
musicals, the original "King Kong," "Bringing
Up Baby" (with Cary Grant
and Katharine Hepburn),
Hitchcock's
"Notorious," and what is perhaps the most acclaimed movie
of all time, Orson Welles'
masterpiece, "Citizen Kane."

But
the decline of RKO began in 1948 when it was bought out by eccentric tycoon
Howard Hughes,
who eventually sold it to a tire company. It was soon purchased by LucilleBall & Desi
Arnaz in 1957, who made it part of their
"Desilu Studios." Eventually, the RKO/Desilu property
was swallowed up by its massive neighbor, Paramount Studios, and the old
lot is now included in the Paramount tour. In 1994, the entire studio was
bought by Viacom for $10 billion. In 1999, Viacom bought the CBS
television network, in the largest media merger in history. And in 2002,
Viacom bought the nearby KCAL studios.
In later years, Paramount had major hits with "Saturday Night Fever"
(1977), "Heaven Can Wait" (1978), "Grease"
(1978), "Reds" (1981), "Flashdance" (1983),
"Fatal Attraction" (1987), "The Untouchables"
(1987), "Coming to America" and "The Accused"
(1988). The studio has also had good luck with sequels, issuing the series
of extremely popular "Star Trek" movies (starting in 1979),
as well as the "Raiders of the Lost Ark / Indiana Jones"
adventures, "The Bad News Bears" comedies, the satirical
"Airplane!" flicks, plus the "Beverly Hills Cop,"
"Naked Gun," and "48 Hours" films, and
the seemingly endless "Friday the 13th" horror series.

Paramount produced vintage
TV series as well, such as all five of the "Star Trek" series (TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager & Enterprise), the original "The Untouchables"
(with Robert Stack
as Elliot Ness), "The Brady Bunch," "Happy Days," "Mission: Impossible," "Taxi," "Cheers," "Family Ties",
"The Mod Squad" and "Mork & Mindy"
(with Robin Williams).

In 2005, Paramount bought out
the DreamWorks studio, which became a unit
of Paramount, and as a result has had additional successes with DreamWorks
productions such as "Transformers" and "Shrek
the Third".

Paramount is a huge, sprawling
studio, covering an area almost as big as Disneyland. At peak season, the
studio employees over 5,000 people. Just driving around the outside of
the studio walls will give you an indication of the studio's vast size.
A tall water tower with the blue Paramount mountain logo still looms over
the lot, a throwback to the days when the studio had its own fire department
and hospital.

Paramount offers a two-hour
walking tour of the historic
studio, so you can see the inside as well.

Seen
from the outside, the studio has one notable landmark: if you've seen "Sunset
Blvd," you'll be familiar with Paramount Studio's ornate, wrought
iron entry gate. Built in 1926, this renowned arched gateway is located
at the north end of Bronson Avenue (and is hence called "The Bronson Gate").
It's almost as famous as Paramount's well known logo (of a snow capped
mountain with a halo of stars), and it has a unique history. According
to the tour guide, the extra iron filigree on top of the gate was added
after crazed female fans of Rudolph Valentino
overwhelmed security and climbed over the original unfortified gate.
Ironically, Charles Bronson
(whose name was originally Charles Buchinski) took his new name from this
gate.

To find this historic archway,
from Melrose Avenue, just look north
up Bronson Avenue. You'll note that the old gate just east of the new
double arch Paramount gates (which were built to resemble the original
Bronson arch).

Incidentally, Paramount Studios
can be rented for private parties and group events of up to 3,000 people.
The studio offers event planning, food & beverage facilities, service
staff, even use of the New York Street set or their sound stages (based
on availability).

Getting
there:
Paramount Studio is bounded by Van Ness Avenue (on the east), Melrose (on
the south), Gower Street (on the west), and the Hollywood Cemetery (on
Santa Monica Boulevard) to the north. (Ironically, some of Paramount's
biggest stars of the past are buried at Hollywood Memorial, including Rudolph
Valentino) / FromHollywood & Vine, go south on Vine
one mile to Santa Monica Boulevard, then go east on Santa Monica Boulevard
(one quarter mile) to Gower Street, and turn right (south) on Gower. The
studio will be on your left (east) side.

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